Monthly Archives: May 2016

Meet our new Development officer and new board member

S.I.F. directors are delighted to announce the appointment of Kirsty MacColl as the organisation’s new development officer.

Kirsty is a crofter in Acharacle in West Lochaber and has close family links with Uist. She knows all about the challenges of farming in a remote area and has a strong interest in community empowerment, having worked for the Community Retail Network, Seeing is Believing and Plunkett Scotland. She is looking forward to find out more about the challenges of island life and has started to work on a new survey to identify how we can all work together to ensure the islanders’ voice is heard loud and clear!

Another outcome of the S.I.F. recruitment drive has been the appointment of a new director on the board, Ann MacDonald from the Tiree Community Trust.

The Blue New Deal

The Blue New Deal is a UK-wide initiative, led by the New Economics Foundation and working in collaboration with a range of stakeholders, to support good jobs, increased economic sustainability and resilience for coastal communities through a healthier coastal and marine environment.

Free New Blue Deal workshop:

Tuesday 26 July 2016 – 12:00 to 17:00 University of Aberdeen

This one-day workshop is an opportunity to discuss Scottish coastal communities, coastal economy and marine environment.

The event also featured inspiring community presentations about Fair Isle, South Skye and Little Loch Broom, as well as COAST, who charted the milestones of their journey to successfully establish an MPA for Arran.

Fair Isle Demonstration and Research MPA

The community on Fair Isle has been actively campaigning for a Demonstration and Research MPA to be set up on the island which has witnessed a worrying decline in its sea-bird population during the last decades. The D&R MPA seeks to look into the causes of this decline, address it and research the socio-economic benefits of marine conservation for local communities.

Inge Thomson, the singer and performer from Fair Isle and her father Stewart showed the film made on Fair Isle about the need for a D&R MPA and made an impassioned plea for people to support their proposal.

To have your say, click on this link to the Scottish Government consultation which ends on 26 May.